All about bicycling and livability in San Francisco's North Panhandle neighborhood.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Fell Street Bike Lane Gets the Green; Crews Close Arco Entry and Exit for Several Hours

This morning city crews painted the much-discussed block of Fell Street between Scott and Divisadero a long-awaited green stripe -- actually a solid green lane to mid-block and then a dashed green lane for the rest. This latest iteration in the traffic configuration on the block represents one more attempt to lessen the risks to road users, especially bicyclists, and to pedestrians needing safe passage along the Arco station property. The green lane on Fell is the first since Market Street was re-striped to created a more noticeable, safer bikeway. Workers explained that the green paint sprayed on Fell contained less epoxy than the substance applied to Market Street to reduce the odor that can linger for days. During the morning and early afternoon, the Arco entry and exit along Fell were closed to customers while the bike lane was painted and new bike icons were added. The Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) will study the impact of the green lane on vehicle and bicycle traffic on the block. At the same time the durability and visibility of the paint itself will be measured to determine its usefulness for other locations in the city, especially those with vehicle traffic on the painted areas.

My experience seems like the turn lane has already helped relieve some of the congestion, but with all the new lines drivers still get confused. Hopefully the green bike lane will make it super obvious where bikes are supposed to go. :-)

@Anthony: The SFMTA may be anticipating the eventual greening of the Scott middle-of-the-block bike lane and the now-green Fell block. Those turns on a red at Scott and Fell risk the high speeds of many motorists and the blind spots for drivers making a left on Scott from Fell.

I think all the paint on Fell is actually starting to work. Now let's get this bike lane green all the way to the Panhandle. And we sorely need a left-turn-for- bikes phase of the traffic signal at Fell.

BTW, I counted 31 inbound bicycles around me on Market St. this morning, waiting for the light to change at 8th.

Sure they want it. Cyclists don't want to make dangerous turns into traffic against red lights...unless the alternative is to line up in a narrow bike lane, waiting for the light to change, and then a break in opposing vehicle traffic long enough to make the turn. It seems to me that when good bike infrastructure is put in place, people are eager to use it. Noting that there will always be those whose insouciance demands they ignore such petty contrivances

That is such a good idea. I´ve seen that it is becoming popular these days because big cities does not have enough space for all the cars. When I travelled to Argentina, I decided to rent an apartment in buenos aires . From the doorway of the building you could see the bike lanes in every street. They were one of the first ones to fo it!Kim